Fiasco

[Jeff Ream]

Heard three games got stopped Friday night. Did some of them continue thru?

most finished saturday. the one i went to never stopped.

[Dave]

The pressbox was no luxury. No window panes, no walls, no heat, so you still got absolutely freezing wind and even wet if you wanted to stand closer than five feet away from the window.

[Jeff Ream]

Didn't you spend some of that time under the cover of the luxury boxes? I thought I read that in another thread somewhere.

i wouldnt call them luxury. outside of the box dcp and the tabulators used, those little...pavillions were wind tunnels. the roof was no safety from the storm. and to see a corps, you had to walk out into the uncovered part.

even in the box dca and dcp used, it had no windows and to see the corps you had to go the edge, so you got wet anyways.

to go up or down for food or bathroom you got wet.

so pretty much anywhere you went, you got wet

[Ultimate_cab_fan]

know any domes close to Rochester they can book quick and find a way to notify every fan at the last minute, as well as the corps?

If you don't want it to work, it won't. If you want it to work, you'll figure it out.

I'm not asking for a dome. I just wanted what I paid for; to watch all the corps perform at their best. To see them have fun. Watching some of them on the field was equivalent to getting them drunk and saying go play a show for me, while I sit back with my friends watching and waiting for the inevitable wreck to happen.

Saturday should have been cancelled plain and simple. It should have been one big event on Sunday. For those of you who say the weather for Sunday was predicted to be just as bad, I say it don’t matter. The fact is on Saturday they knew what they had to deal with, unbearable wind gusts and cold driving rain. They should have held out for Sunday hoping for a better day. And if that better day didn't happen, it would have been ok to make the decision to go on in despite the weather.

[SaraNYC]

If you don't want it to work, it won't. If you want it to work, you'll figure it out.

I'm not asking for a dome. I just wanted what I paid for; to watch all the corps perform at their best. To see them have fun. Watching some of them on the field was equivalent to getting them drunk and saying go play a show for me, while I sit back with my friends watching and waiting for the inevitable wreck to happen.

Saturday should have been cancelled plain and simple. It should have been one big event on Sunday. For those of you who say the weather for Sunday was predicted to be just as bad, I say it don’t matter. The fact is on Saturday they knew what they had to deal with, unbearable wind gusts and cold driving rain. They should have held out for Sunday hoping for a better day. And if that better day didn't happen, it would have been ok to make the decision to go on in despite the weather.

Well guess what - it wasn't canceled. The show went on. So quit whining about it.

It was just one more character building experience for those of us that experienced it, and even though I would have rather not had to march in the rain with no sunglasses, I did it anyway and embraced the moment, just like my fellow particpants did. It's part of what the activity you claim to be a fan of is all about.

[EuphKub79]

I'm going to keep this short and sweet:

I'm sorry you had such a terrible time, but I doubt anyone held a gun to your head to do this. Perhaps you should research an activity and ALL the things it entails before jumping head-first into it? If you don't like it, don't join and/or volunteer next year. This is the nature of the beast, take it or leave it. Playing in the rain and the cold and the mud doesn't kill you... it's just another adversity we must endure as an outdoor activity... as an instructor of mine once said about our crappy home rehearsal field... "If you can play on THIS, you can play on ANYTHING"

[Fred Windish]

Guys and Gals . . .

Whoa!

Let's try to be as kindly to one another as possible. ANYONE who made the trip to Rochester is a friend of mine!

What happened Saturday was AWFUL for all of us. More importantly, we do drum corps, we are competitors. We need to strike back! Venting on Drum Corps Planet is not only necessary, but helps to keep our family stronger.

I lost the chance to sell out every yearbook. I got very wet. That VIP level is actually worse than the lower and upper levels due to a wind tunnel effect. I am (shall we say peeved?) about what Mother Nature dealt us that day. It likely won't happen for another 50 years. Try to enjoy being part of an historic event!

While not part of the decision to continue the event, I did listen in. There was SIMPLY NO OTHER CHOICE! It was a careful decision based upon facts at hand. It would also have been my decision.

I am very pleased to read comments from our performers who "sucked it up" and did their best. Not only do they now have a war story to tell for many years to come, they have demonstrated the attitude of this organization that keeps myself and many others going.

Thank you.

[Scerpella]

Its interesting how in a thread which seeks to discuss whether pressing forward with prelims was a good decision or not, many people have come in and labelled all that thought it wasnt a great idea as "whiners". And then try to characterize marching in that slop as character building. Sorry folks there was nothing noble about it, fans stayed away in droves, so what was the point of it? But the fact is that it wasnt cancelled and all of us who did perform in prelims were faced with the same thing. Ill put our performance and spirit up against anyones.

But it doesnt mean I liked it or would like to do it again, especially not in an important show where going foward is not guaranteed. All anyone got out of it is a story to tell at the next drum corps gathering about the monsoon of 06. Personally I would trade that for better conditions anyday.

Hopefully the next time this happens DCA will think harder about making the show go on. Its already been argued convincingly that all three shows could have taken place on Sunday.

Edited September 12, 2006 by Scerpella

[Guard Diva]

I feel bad for Alliance because they had some kind of tarp and as soon as many of the guard members set them, they blew away......there's nothing worse then that feeling when you go to the side line for an equipment change and your equipment isn't there!!!! That really must have sucked for you guys!

As a performing member of one of th corps that warmed up, got delayed, and had to rewarm up, yes the conditions were less than ideal, but we went on and did our show even in the pouring rain, once we started performing, I didn't notice it much....as a performer you tend to get "in the zone" so to speak and don't notice stuff like how cold and wet you are and only even acknowledge the weather in so much as it affects your show (look above or below the sun, pull back or forward for wind, etc)

I know that in time, the bad things fade away and we only tend to remember the good things, , but even now, a week after, I had the time of my life.....being on teh field performing with my corps was awesome. Not say I would have preferred the sun, but it was what it was, and I enjoyed the performance. Thank you to the fans that were there....we performed for each and every one of you! Despite the less than favorable weather, which DCA cannot control, it was one of the best DCA weekends for me EVER.

[bill]

I've performed in much worst conditions. It was a "walk in the park". Frankly, the conditions were the furthest thing from my mind.

Focusing on the task at hand was the only thing I was thinking about. But I'll tell ya.....an uplifting rain soaked ocassional breeze sure brought a new meaning to..."goin' true"

"I'm here to kick ### and chew gum....and I'm all outta gum".

~Lothar, 2005 DCA~